Fair Housing: The Young Case
The Young case, Civil Action No. P-80-8-CA, was filed in 1980 and involved over seventy housing authorities in thirty-six East Texas counties. The named plaintiffs, Lucille Young, Virginia Wyatt, and Helen Ruth Jackson, had applied for low-income housing operated by the Clarksville and Pittsburg Public Housing Authorities. The plaintiffs alleged that tenants were assigned on the basis of race, that black and white residents of the same complex were placed into segregated areas, and that sites for new construction had the effect of maintaining black housing in primarily black neighborhoods and white housing in primarily white neighborhoods.
Judge Justice’s July 1, 1982 order permitted the action to be maintained as a class action. Further, it severed the litigation against Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from the action against the Clarksville and Pittsburg Housing Authorities. The latter actions subsequently because Young and Wyatt v.Whiteman, Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Clarksville, P-82-37-CA, and Jackson v. Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburg, Texas, M-82-162-CA. Materials on Young v. Whiteman may be found below.
In July 1985, following extensive discovery, Judge Justice ruled on cross-motions for summary judgment and granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.
In October 1985, plaintiffs requested an order requiring HUD officials to submit a remedial plan.
Without conceding the correctness of the Court’s July 31 opinion, the defendants agreed to submit a remedial plan on or before December 17, 1985.